Les Bicknell

Les is a part-time Senior Lecturer on BA (Hons) Textile Design.

I have been making, exhibiting, selling, designing, curating, teaching and talking about art, design and creativity for a long time in a broad range of situations. I bring this extensive experience to the post of Senior Lecturer at Norwich University of the Arts. The Textile Course has a creative and flexible approach to thinking, teaching and making which is student centred and on reflection this is why I feel that I am teaching in the right place.

Working within the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at Kings College University my current research focuses on making models to facilitate an understanding of the development of the brain. The work manifests itself in the creation of handheld articulated sculptural works.

My practice has covered a range of activity from large scale public art projects to intimate personal commissions. I’m currently concerned with ideas around order and control, using systems to generate outcomes. Often using the tools of repositioning and rethinking context to challenge our preconceived understanding the work becomes a question rather than an answer, a collaboration in the mind and hand between maker and audience (reader/viewer).

My work is available to view on my website and blog.

General practice since 2010

• 2024 – Awarded artist in residence at Sizewell C. A year-long residency beginning in November.
• 2024 – Dev Neuro Academy Summer school. Lead artist working with underrepresented students, exploring how to navigate the tricky issue of team building through DNA, and developing ways of communicating abstract concepts through anatomical models.
• 2024 – Feral Art School in Hull to work on their Rewilding course.
• 2022 – Jubilant! As part of the Stowmarket Jubilant! Project, I worked with pupils from Stowupland High School and Colin Lay of Red Gables to envisage the possible uses of a large open area on the school site. We set out to investigate and question the space to help us understand and map it. The idea was that by mapping what is there we could determine what could be. An outdoor installation and a printed limited-edition book were two physical outcomes.
• 2022 – Garden of emotions. A commissioned set of instructional/inspirational posters exploring the potential of paper folding within a well-being context. These were sited within a specific area created within the science museum on the London Bridge Kings campus that was set out as a quiet area. This was accompanied by a series of workshops.
• 2018 – 2024 – Synthetic anatomy. Delivering an interdisciplinary module within the school of Anatomy at Kings College, London. Often collaborating with artists and a team of science academics on the provision of reflective practice with Bio-medical, Anatomy students within a 3D printing programme.
• 2018 – #knownknowledge. Working with Essex County Council and Commissions Projects to develop 6 steel plasma-cut public art sculptures for Goldlay Square in Chelmsford.
• 2017 – unfoldingthinking. A year with NanoTech DTC collaborating with PhD students and academics at the Maxwell Centre for Nanotechnology in Cambridge. The project sought to extend an understanding between cutting edge science and contemporary art, specifically making connections between nanotechnology and the making of bookworks. Outcomes include a series of interventions within labs and communal spaces, films, artworks, exhibitions, papers and workshops.
• 2016 – Postures of Making. A participant in the Arts Council funded project that explores the ergonomics of making. A research and development project which is centred on working collaboratively with ergonomics scientist Dr Valerie Woods.
• ​2016 – NanoArtDTC. Working within a team of nano scientists, a collaborative project organised with Jeremy Baumberg within the NanoDTC Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge. This included presenting a paper at The Festival of ideas in Cambridge.
• 2016 – Build your own: tools for sharing. Working in the Castle Museum, Norwich during the Build your own exhibition. Engaging with members of the public and creating a number of films exploring the process of making. The work built on the collaborative work I had recently engaged in within the NanoPhotonics Centre in Cambridge University. Working with the Director Prof. Jeremy J. Baumberg on an experimental project
• 2015 – Dementia Quilt. Supporting and co-ordinating a student engagement with a local nursing home in Norwich with NUA. Working with the residents, staff and students to develop a number of artworks to be located within Grenville Court residential home.
• 2014-15 – Parallel Practice: Squeeze fold bend and expand – Structural Memory in Deformable Objects. Was a Project organised in collaboration with the Crafts Council and Kings College London. The project set out to explore ways of controlling movement and the articulation of objects to build new structures whose functionality and manipulation will be framed and enriched by knowledge of soft robotics.
• 2014 –  squeeze fold bend and expand – Structural Memory in Deformable Objects. It is a Project organised in collaboration with the Crafts Council and Kings College London. The project sets out to explore ways of controlling movement and the articulation of objects in order to build new structures whose functionality and manipulation will be framed and enriched by knowledge of soft robotics. Source
• 2013 – Unpicking and Rebinding: unpicking and rebinding mapped and presented the making of and thinking behind a body of new work that explored the fold. Working with a number of archives and collections in the Eastern Region the project presented the idea of an entry point for exploring and utilising the collections. In partnership with The Museum of East Anglian Life (MEAL) Suffolk, Carrow House – Norwich, Norwich Castle Museum, Suffolk County Council Archives and Norwich University of the Arts (NUA).
• 2013 – unpicking and rebinding exhibitions – Bury St Edmunds Record Office, Lowestoft Record Office, Ipswich Record Office, Norwich Castle, MEAL.
• 2013 – Creative Carers – a pilot Artlink project working within residential homes with carers of the elderly
• 2013 – borders and crossings exhibition – impact 8 Dundee
• 2012 – Bookmare. Creating a body of work for the first bookmare at Camberwell College of the arts – including an illustrated talk and design of the limited edition printed material.
• 2012 – The big book. The creation of a large bookwork for the learning programme at firstsite gallery in Colchester. The piece celebrates the history of the space from its inception to the first exhibition alongside ideas including looking, thinking, colour and illusion. The book is to be used as a tool to engage the public in the exploration and understanding of the permanent and touring exhibitions.
• 2012 – Journey to the podium. A commission for Essex County Council – to create a collaborative bookwork with an athlete for the 2012 Olympics. Working with Dan Bentley, paralympian gold medallist, boccia player to create a piece that connects the audience to the experience of Boccia. The work has a functionality that mirrors the initial simplicity of the sport; but when handled reveals the complexity and gamesmanship which is embedded within the game play.
• 2011 – Interactive print. Working with Firstsite, Colchester Museum service and Essex schools to develop specialist print around the Roman Berryfield mosaic which is embedded within the floor of the space.
• 2010 – Wrapping the Corn Exchange with cornfields and sky. A temporary piece which celebrated the history of the space whilst generating a moment of calm within the town. The 75m x 10m printed piece wrapped Ipswich Corn exchange while it was being redeveloped.

One-Person Shows since 2010:

• November 2013 –  unpicking and rebinding. Small tour including Norwich Castle Museum, Museum of East Anglia Stowmarket and Suffolk Record Offices in Ipswich, Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds
• April 2014 – Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol
• September 2014: plis croises. Imprints, Piegros La Castre France
• Dec 2017-18 – unfoldingthinking NanoDTC, Cavendish Museum, Cambridge.

Group Shows since 2010:

• March – April 2010 – we are the history of textiles. Dragon Hall, Norwich
• July – August 2010 – exhibitor. Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
• April 2011: Prospero’s Library. Studio 75, London
• July – September 2011 – Modified Expression. National Craft Gallery of Ireland, Kilkenny
• November – December 2011 – “Between You and Me’. Samwon Paper Gallery, Seoul Korea
• December 2011 – rewind. Texere bi-annual, Kaunas
• January 2012 – repeat. Norwich Gallery
• July 2012 – bookmare. Camberwell space, London.
• 2013 – The Art and Soul of Paper. Various locations Norwich
• 2013 – Codex: Between This and That. bookartbookshop London
• Aug – 2013 –  Boarders and Crossings. Dundee
• October – 2013: International Artists Book Prize. Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
• November – 2013 – Resurrecting the Book. Library of Birmingham,
• May – 2014 – DIY Cultures. Rich Mix – London
• 2014-15 – RUKSSIAN Artists’ Books. Touring exhibition Tsaritsyno State Historical, Architectural, Art and Landscape Museum-Reserve, MoscowPavel Kuznetsov Museum, Saratov – Russia 
• 2016 – Fashion 360. fashion week at NUA
• 2016 – Art Language Location. Cambridge
• 2016 – Paperscissorsbook. a Northern craft touring show.
• 2017 – We love your books.
• May 2017 – Of average sunlight. Kingsland Project Space, March
• Sept 2017 – Intersections. Loughborough University – unfoldingthinking.
• May 2018 – of average sunlight. Poetry Library, Southbank Festival Hall.
• March 2019 – PAGES. Touring – Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham.
• May 2019 – Print Matters – books from the archives Przy Rektoracia Gallery. Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Art and Design, Poland.
• June Sept 2019 – Constellation Inspiration and the Artist Book. Laramie County, Wyoming, USA.
• July 2010 – gommisti. imprints, Crest, France
• Aug 2020 – site specific online The Cut, Halesworth.
• March 2021 – Wood-Sun-Stone – Friends of Roger Ackling. imprints, Crest, France
• July 2021 – Firstlight Bird Box project, various locations, Lowestoft
• 2021 – BABE “Lost weekend”
• July 2021 – HERE, artstation, Saxmundham.
• September 2021 – Flag, artstation, Saxmundham.
• July 2022 – La Fabrique du pont d’Aleyrac, à Saint Pierreville en Ardèche.
• Nov 2022 – Jan 2023 – pattern book, Upright Gallery in Edinburgh. 
• Dec 2022 – animal, vegetable, mineral, artstation, Saxmundham.
• June 2024 – remember, a piece for firstlight in Lowestoft
• Oct – Nov 2024 – For Folks Sake, Halesworth Gallery.

Other Activities since 2010

• 2024 – ‘Making Bread with your Feet’ at the recent Midlands Conference of Critical Thought as part of the Gentle Gestures.
• 2016 – Mentor Crafts Council Parallel Practices
• 2016 – Mentoring role within the Crafts Council Parallel Practices 2 programme.
• 2016 – Speaker at Make:Shift Crafts Council.
• 2017 – Speaker at Making Materials Matter conference.
• 2017 – Consultant with Synthetic Anatomy at Kings.
• 2017 – 2018 – Mentoring role on The Critical Practice Program at Tashkeel.
• 2018 – 2020 – Workshop/presenter Making Materials Matter conference.
• 2020 – Materials Research Exchange – Business Design Centre.
• 2021 – Bookness course – Leicester Print Works
• 2022 – Double Elephant, printmaking workshop – Exeter 4-month  
• 2023 – commissioned by St Michael’s C of E School in Louth to create a bookwork based on the Meridian Line sculptures.
• 2023 – commissioned by Norfolk and Norwich Festival to create an art walk for the Norwich Art Path.
• 2023 – The Synthetic Anatomy Module at Kings won an Education innovation Award from the Anatomical Society for an Integrated Innovative Anatomy Teaching Module.
• 2024 – paper included in Pattern and Chaos in Art, Science and Everyday Life (Book) Critical Intersections and Creative Practice. By Sarah Horton and Victoria Mitchell